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I just took an online quiz for my Operating Systems class. I got this question wrong, can you please give the right answer and why? I answered A. Also, if this needs to be migrated to a different SE site, please do so.

How does computer hardware ensure that user programs cannot overwrite memory used by the operating system?

A) By running user programs in priviledged mode
B) Each process has a base register and a limit register
C) The operating system is not loaded into memory
D) Programs running in user mode cannot access memory

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serverfault.com/faq – Zoredache Jan 30 at 20:09
@Zoredache, I'm sorry which part do you want me to read? I use StackOverflow all the time, but this is my first time on serverfault. – jb. Jan 30 at 20:19
@Zoredache would superuser be a better place to ask this? – jb. Jan 30 at 20:20
The section about What kind of questions can I ask here?. Notice how your questions fits in none of the categories of permitted questions? – Zoredache Jan 30 at 20:21
@Zoredache ok, there isn't a specific "computer hardware" SE site. this was the closest it seemed. superuser maybe? – jb. Jan 30 at 20:22
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closed as off topic by Zoredache, Jacob, Holocryptic, ErikA, jscott Jan 30 at 20:19

Questions on Server Fault are expected to generally relate to servers, networking, or desktop infrastructure, within the scope defined in the faq.

1 Answer

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Hardware, specifically the MMU: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_management_unit

Either B or D would be true, but D is more likely to be what they expected.

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